Snotti Prince St. Cyr EPY 2050—Check-In #3 Sunday, February 8, 2015

Should Babies be More Immersed in Multiple Languages?

I generally think that babies should be immersed in two or more languages throughout their

entire development into adulthood because the acquisition of languages—and, by extension, culture-

and ethnicity-specific mannerisms—seems to be supported the most by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological

systems theory and also the dynamic systems perspective. My interpretation of both the NPR interview

with Dr. Janet Werker and the PBS “The Parent Show” with Ana Flores is that both of their positions as

portrayed in the interviews are flawed because both of them assume “normal” development and

stimulation of children while ignoring any risk factors that could interfere with the efficiency of language

development (e.g. low-birth weight, brain injuries, lack of attachment, sleep patterns). Perhaps this is

done for simply a lack of proper time given to them since both of these outlets where they were

interviewed are funded in a way that must be paid for through donations and commercials to keep their

platforms going. Furthermore, the credibility could be higher for Dr. Werker than Ms./Mrs. Flores

because the former is a legitimate scientist trying to expand our knowledge about humanity while the

latter is, at the very least, selectively using information published by Dr. Werker and her peers (which

she may or may not completely understand) in order to market her website and products. Ms./Mrs.

Flores has an agenda that may not be trustworthy, despite several remarks she made in her interview

that are most likely correct and are verifiable.

A combination of the ecological systems theory and dynamic systems perspective seems to

convey language acquisition in child development most accurately because they illustrate a symbiotic

relationship between the inner workings of individual human beings and the collective nature of

societies and physical environments. The problem, in my opinion, is that risk factors like low-birth

weight, prenatal or infant brain injuries (which affects neural plasticity), and disparities in sleep patterns

have long-term effects on children’s mastery of languages and overall working memories. Dr. Werker

may be more likely to take these issues into account, but does not do so. I find this neglect troubling

because I think it has a negative impact on “experience-expectant brain growth” and the role that

language plays in said growth. Multiple studies from Akshoomoff (2002) and Stiles (2001, 2003, 2008)

show that children with brain damage take longer to accumulate language and spatial skills than their

healthier peers, struggle longer in reading and math skills (Reilly et al., 2004), and are subject to the

“crowding effect” within their brains because damage in specific parts of the brain results in a smaller

surface area (or volume?) in the still-developing cerebral cortex to perform tasks (Huttenlocher, 2002).

Based on these studies, the ecological systems model demonstrates that language acquisition and

mastery necessitate life-long connections between all four levels of the model; the improvement

between such connections can only be achieved through language to convey the ideas. Similarly, one

can argue that many of the dynamic systems model’s “branches” are directly derived from the

languages people use to express and implement ideas from every level of the ecological systems model.

Risk factors like low-birth weight—and, by extension, concepts like “social determinants of

health”—should be considered for nearly every approach towards language development because

ensuring the opportunity for every child to maximize his or her potential as an adult may determine

humanity’s survival. Some studies have shown that pathways to productivity in academic, social, and

cultural settings are negatively affected when babies are born less healthy than their peers ( Aarnoudse-

Moens, 2009; Ribeiro et al., 2011) and a few others have shown a correlation between language

difficulties and shorter attention span (Casiro et al., 1990; Barre et al., 2010; Sansavini, 2010) as well as

parental stress for preterm babies (Reichman, 2005). I think that Dr. Werker and Ms./Mrs. Flores miss

the point when conveying their views on language acquisition because I believe that language mastery

and memory retention should be more important than mere development. Parental stress, various

levels of SES, and genetic and medical conditions all play a role in how children use cues to express

themselves. If a parent is stressed out about the workplace, marriage, child care expenses for the week,

or all three, then said stress will be passed to the child. It is possible that specific words and mannerisms

used to illustrate strain will transfer onto the child depending on the exact situation, but at the expense

of other words and mannerisms that may not be introduced into the child’s life until much later.

References/Works Cited

Akshoomoff, N. A., Feroleto, C. C., Doyle, R. E., and Stiles, J. (2002). The impact of early unilateral brain injury on perceptual organization and visual memory . Neuropsychologia, 40, 539-51. Aarnoudse-Moens, C. S., Weisglas-Kuperus, N., van Goudoever, J. B., and Oosterlaan, J. (August 2009). Meta-analysis of neurobehavioral outcomes in very preterm and/or very low birth weight children . Pediatrics, 124 (2), 717-728. doi: 10.1542/peds.2008-2816. Barre, N., Morgan, A., Ph.D., Doyle, M. W., M.D., and Anderson, P. J., Ph.D. (May 2011). Language Abilities in Children Who Were Very Preterm and/or Very Low Birth Weight: A Meta-Analysis. The Journal of Pediatrics, 158 (5), 766-774. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2010.10.032 Casiro, O. G., Moddemann, D. M., Stanwick, R. S., Panikkar-Theissen, V. K., Cowan, H., and Cheang, M. S. (October 1990). Language development of very low birth weight infants and fullterm controls at 12 months of age. Early Human Development, (24) 1, 65-77. doi:10.1016/0378-3782(90)90007-6 Fisher, K. W. and Biddell, T. (2006) Constraining Nativist Inferences about cognitive capabilities. S. Carey and R. Gelman (Eds.), The Epigenesis of Mind: Essays on Biology and Cognition . Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, pp. 199-235. Huttenlocher, P. R. (2002). Neural plasticity: The effects of environment on the development of the cerebral cortex. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Reichman, N. E. (Spring 2005). Low Birth Weight and School Readiness. School Readiness: Closing Racial and Ethnic Gaps, 15 (1). Retrieved from http://futureofchildren.org/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=38&articleid=118&sectionid=775 Ribeiro, L. A., Zachrisson, H. D., Schjolberg, S., Aase, H., Rohrer-Baumgartner, N., and Magnus, P. (2011). Attention problems and language development in preterm low-birth-weight children: Cross-lagged relations from 18 to 36 months. BMC Pediatrics, 11 (59). doi:10.1186/1471-2431-11-59

Sansavini, A., Guarini, A., Justice, L. M., Savini, S., Broccoli, S., Alessandroni, R., and Faldella, G. (December 2010). Does preterm birth increase a child's risk for language impairment? Early Human Development, 86 (12), 765-772. doi:10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2010.08.014 Spencer, J. P. and Schoner, G. (2003). Bridging the representational gap in the dynamic systems approach to development. Developmental Science, 6, 392-412. Stiles, J. (2001). Neural plasticity in cognitive development. Developmental Neuropsychology, 18, 237-272. Stiles, J., Moses, P., Roe, K., Akshoomoff, N. A., Trauner, D., and Hesselink, J. (2003). Alternative brain organization after prenatal cerebral injury: Convergent fMRI and cognitive data . Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 9, 604-622. Stiles, J., Stern, C., Appelbaum, M., and Nass, R. (2008). Effects of early focal brain injury on memory for visuospatial patterns: Selective deficits of global-local processing. Neuropsychology, 22, 61-73. Thelen, E. and Smith, L. B. (2006). Dynamic systems theories. In R. M. Lerner (Ed.) Handbook of Child Psychology: Vol. 1 Theoretical models of human development (6th Ed., pp. 258-312). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.